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"Music has two phases -- the club night and the reflective morning after -- but for Madonna&amp;apos;s purposes Sunday night at New York&amp;apos;s Roseland Ballroom, it was all about the drive for the dance floor. In a free concert for radio contest winners and select celebs like Rosie O&amp;apos;Donnell, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller and Donatella Versace, Madonna took the stage for a five-song set, her first New York club appearance since her surprise 2 a.m. stop at the Roxy on Valentine&amp;apos;s Day, 1998.\r\nOutside of that Roxy gig -- in which she only played four songs -- Madonna hasn&amp;apos;t played a venue the size of Roseland (which holds 3,000) since before her Like a Virgin tour fifteen years ago. It&amp;apos;s been strictly amphitheaters, arenas and stadiums ever since, which made this appearance even more of a rarity, especially considering she didn&amp;apos;t tour for her last album and hasn&amp;apos;t decided yet whether she&amp;apos;ll hit the road for this one. But judging by her joyous, practically giddy return to the stage, she&amp;apos;s going to have a hard time staying away.\r\nWith venue sets and decor designed by Italian duo Dolce &amp;amp; Gabbana, Roseland (as befitting Music&amp;apos;s cover art and Madonna&amp;apos;s latest cowgirl/clubgirl persona) was a neo-Western wonderland, with bales of hay, yellow-lit horseshoes and silver cactuses throughout the lobby and entranceway. Scantily-dressed cowboy and Indian dancers vogued pre-show in provocative poses, lassoing each other and twirling passersby as they skated circles around them -- like the Village People meets Coyote Ugly, roller disco style.\r\nDJs Deep Dish -- who played thudding, pulsing beats before and after opening act Everlast, in his first public acoustic performance -- teased the crowd by sampling parts of Madonna&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;Music&amp;quot; to give a false sense that she was about to take the stage. And when she did, it was via a second stage not often used at the venue, the set of which been draped with an enlarged American flag. To the beginning strains of &amp;quot;Impressive Instant,&amp;quot; the flag lifted to reveal a pickup truck, which she crawled out of as four bare-chested male dancers encircled her, licking her on cue with her hushed commands of &amp;quot;Kiss me.&amp;quot;\r\nThough on record &amp;quot;Instant&amp;quot; is rife with studio tricks and vocoder effects, Madonna&amp;apos;s voice was dry: no filters, no re-pitching, no compression, no echo, no delay -- the only manipulation that remained was that of her sexual gyrations. It made her voice sound thin, but less ridiculous on lines such as &amp;quot;I want to singy, singy, singy/Like a bird on a wingy, wingy, wingy.&amp;quot;\r\nActually, all of the weirder, verging-on-annoying elements of Mirwais&amp;apos; Eurodisco production, not just Madonna&amp;apos;s vocals, were flattened out, relieving &amp;quot;Don&amp;apos;t Tell Me&amp;quot; of its purposeful anxiety since its acoustic guitar couldn&amp;apos;t be electronically choppy. Mirwais (who joined Madonna on this one song) strummed the beginning of &amp;quot;Don&amp;apos;t Tell Me&amp;quot; straight, so that the guitar line&amp;apos;s similarity to &amp;quot;Sweet Home Alabama&amp;quot; was clear, the only real lick of hick to be found on Music, despite the album&amp;apos;s country-western imagery.\r\nIt seemed like the rustic element was about to be dropped as soon as the second verse brought in a swoon-worthy string section, playing on the second stage as Madonna by then had crowd-surfed her way to the main stage. But she brought the song&amp;apos;s underlying dance beats to the forefront as her two female backup singers joined her and the male dancers in a sort of techno two-step, an erotic party-girl line-dance that harnessed both country and electronic music dance moves. Odd, yes. But it was the moment that Music&amp;apos;s incongruent music and style influences made sense, if only slightly.\r\nShedding the country-western jacket, Madonna revealed a slit-up-the-sides tank top with &amp;quot;Britney Spears&amp;quot; written on it in gold sequins, part of her winking dedication of &amp;quot;What It Feels Like for a Girl&amp;quot; to the teen pop imitator. Though soft in beat, the song is full of barbs like &amp;quot;When you open up your mouth to speak/Could you be a little weak?&amp;quot; which Madonna sang without irony. She seemed too happy to harp on anything, grinning madly as she shimmied and shook her hips to the throbbing bass and pounding beats. &amp;quot;I&amp;apos;m so happy to be on stage again!&amp;quot; she shouted at one point. &amp;quot;I&amp;apos;m kind of nervous. It&amp;apos;s been a while.&amp;quot;\r\nDancing quickly cleared up any anxiety, though, as she seemed to engage the crowd most when she just let the beats take over -- she stopped singing during &amp;quot;Music&amp;quot; just to move to the seamless procession of pulse and groove, and it didn&amp;apos;t hurt the song a bit. Since the song itself, like many of her early singles, is a celebration of music&amp;apos;s ability to liberate and bring people together, it suited the connection she shared with her fans. In some ways, &amp;quot;Music&amp;quot; is essentially &amp;quot;Everybody&amp;quot; -- even though Madonna&amp;apos;s style keeps changing direction, it fits into an ever-evolving, ever-larger picture. It would have been nice had she been able to show this evolution, but that&amp;apos;s not something she can readily do in a five-song set. Opening acts Deep Dish and Everlast (who was joined by N&amp;apos;Dea Davenport on &amp;quot;Love for Real&amp;quot;) accomplished this in part for her, evoking Madonna&amp;apos;s Music folktronic influences in their purest forms, Deep Dish with their trance beats, Everlast with his folk blues, so that she didn&amp;apos;t have to commit to either one -- she can just continue to flirt with these styles until she finds a new one to adore and absorb."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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